Winless and without Jayden Daniels, Washington held on for a stunning 33-31 victory.
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The Washington Commanders appeared to be overmatched.
Not only were they without quarterback Jayden Daniels as he recovers from his dislocated left elbow, but they were down six other starters. That would be difficult to overcome regardless of the opponent. Given they were playing the defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks, Washington was in an especially disadvantageous position.
None of that stopped the Commanders from upsetting the Seahawks, 33-31, on Sunday afternoon at Northwest Stadium, giving them a shot at getting their season back on track.
“We had to find a way to get a win,” offensive lineman Nick Allegretti said. “However it was, whatever way it was, we had to find a way.”
Backup quarterback Marcus Mariota went 19 for 31 for 183 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions to efficiently fill Daniels’s shoes.
“I really believe this team has a chance to do some really, really good things,” Mariota said. “But I think guys in the locker room will definitely say that we are not satisfied yet.”
Washington’s defense gave up 437 yards and struggled to contain the Seahawks’ passing attack. And while the offense put up a lot of points, it rarely converted third downs and committed untimely penalties. One equalizer that helped cover up those mistakes: The Commanders won the turnover battle, 3-0, after entering the game with no takeaways.
“It wasn’t perfect by any stretch — we had to overcome penalties and other things — but I think it does show some of the resolve,” Coach Dan Quinn said.
Washington (1-2) was shorthanded against Seattle (2-1). Just consider the starters who were sidelined: Daniels, left tackle Laremy Tunsil (triceps), right guard Sam Cosmi (right guard), tight end Chig Okonkwo (hamstring), linebacker Frankie Luvu (groin), cornerback Trey Amos (ankle) and safety Nick Cross (internal). And that was before linebacker Leo Chenal was knocked out of the game and hospitalized with a neck injury.
“The 0-3 test and 1-2 test, both don’t sound great on paper, but they feel a lot different,” Quinn said. “We needed to execute it and give ourselves a real good shot at it. … I’ll be excited if we can get some of the players back into next week and then possibly the week after that. But for the guys that are stepping in being able to deliver, that’s a really big deal.”
For the first time this season, the Commanders got off to a strong start. The defense forced its first turnover when cornerback Amik Robertson punched the ball out on a Jadarian Price carry and defensive tackle Tim Settle Jr. recovered it deep in Seahawks territory. Four plays later, Rachaad White separated late on a route out of the backfield, and Mariota found him for a six-yard touchdown to take a 7-0 lead.
Washington was coming off back-to-back losses in which it faced double-digit deficits in the first half. The Commanders desperately needed to flip that trend to have a chance against Seattle. The defense set the tone while holding the Seahawks scoreless across their first three possessions and limiting them to just 20 yards.
Toward the end of the first quarter, however, Seattle got going. Sam Darnold completed four consecutive passes for 83 yards to lead the Seahawks to the Washington 1-yard line. Early in the second quarter, Darnold hit wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba for a touchdown to tie the score.
It was inevitable that Smith-Njigba, Darnold and the Seattle offense would get going. What prevented Washington from truly taking control was its inability to get its own offense in sync. Beyond the short touchdown drive after the fumble, offensive coordinator David Blough’s group was largely ineffective in the first quarter.
A 48-yard touchdown run by Jacory Croskey-Merritt would have put the Commanders up 14-0, but it was wiped off the board by an illegal formation penalty on wide receiver Antonio Williams. On their next drive, a false start by tight end John Bates led to a three-and-out.
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Those miscues helped Seattle tie the score. After the Commanders’ defense forced another three-and-out, though, the offense cleaned up its act. Washington stayed penalty-free on an eight-play, 60-yard scoring drive that was capped by a contested 11-yard touchdown catch by Treylon Burks.
Chenal was then loaded onto a stretcher and carted off the field after suffering his neck injury on the Seahawks’ subsequent drive. After the game, Quinn said Chenal was still being evaluated.
Seattle then drove to Washington’s 2-yard line but failed to turn it into points. The Commanders forced three straight incompletions from Darnold, with the last coming on fourth and two. It was a massive sequence during which the pass rush and coverage played well off one another, leaving Darnold without answers.
The teams traded 57-yard field goals late in the second quarter to give Washington a 17-10 lead at halftime.
The defense again sparked the Commanders to start the third quarter. Settle deflected a pass from Darnold at the line of scrimmage, and linebacker Sonny Styles picked it off deep in Seahawks territory.
The offense capitalized when wide receiver Terry McLaurin (six catches for 77 yards) hauled in an acrobatic 30-yard touchdown pass. McLaurin actually improvised: He was supposed to run a curl route, but when he realized how cleanly he beat his defender off the line of scrimmage, he transitioned into a go route.
“Me and Marcus have enough time spent to where I just trusted that he was going to see it, and he did. He put the ball up where only I could get it,” McLaurin said. “We don’t try to make a habit of going off key, but at the end of the day, we speak about being ballplayers out there. When you get a clean release like that and you have chance to make a big play, you want to capitalize.”
Up 24-10, the Commanders led by two scores for the first time this season. Then came the Seahawks’ comeback. Seattle answered with a 60-yard drive capped by Eric Saubert’s 13-yard touchdown reception, then held Washington scoreless for the rest of the third quarter. The Seahawks started the fourth with an 80-yard march, capped by another touchdown strike to Smith-Njigba from 11 yards out to tie the score at 24.
As they did all game, the Commanders responded. They engineered a methodical 12-play, 42-yard drive to reclaim the lead on a 36-yard field goal by Drew Stevens. Once the Seahawks got the ball back, linebacker Kain Medrano appeared to seal the game with a 50-yard interception return for a touchdown. Stevens missed the extra point after an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty pushed it back, but Washington still led 33-24 with 4:34 left.
Seattle, though, wasn’t done. It took the Seahawks just 66 seconds to tear through Washington’s defense and cut into the lead on Cooper Kupp’s seven-yard touchdown catch.
It all came down to one more drive for the Commanders’ offense. And it was the running game — which had been dormant all day — that came through in the clutch.
On third and nine, Blough called a handoff to White. It was seemingly an effort to burn clock before punting the ball away, but White turned it into a 19-yard gain that picked up the first down and forced the Seahawks to use their final timeouts. Three plays later, Mariota ran for a first down to seal the win.
“We have an unbelievable group of guys,” Mariota said. “The more that adversity hits, the more that the circumstances pin us against the wall, these guys find a way.”
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